Zakarya Al-khalifah

Dr. Brost

ENG 301

January 23, 2017

 

Modern Family, ABC Network

Model family in a real-life situation refers to a family that comprises of father, mother, and children. Mother and father may be of different multicultural beliefs, places of origin, customs, religion, and even different ethnic backgrounds. According to Greenwood [ZA1] model family refers to a family where a father is the head and children and mother are the subjects (12). Bott argues that model family refers to a family which entirely rely on the father as the sole decision maker (2). How has it been portrayed on TV?[ZA2] 

New paragraph [ZA3] 

Modern family has fully portrayed the traditional model family. As evidenced in the story of Jay and his entire family, Jay initially yearns for a family where children could be more submissive to them (“Watch Modern Family TV Show - ABC.Com”). Despite their wishes, they were not able to attain them because their children adapted to the modern culture. Traditionally, the model family consisted of the father as the head of the family as well as a sole provider of the family. The mother is the caregiver of the children.

Modern Family is an American family comedy series that is aired on ABC network to the present. After it started back in September 2009, the show has aired eight[ZA4]  episodes covering the families of Jay. The show was design and created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd (“Watch Modern Family TV Show - ABC.Com”). The storyline revolves around the families of Jay Pritchett, his daughter Claire Dunphy, and his son Mitchell Pritchett, who lives in Suburban Los Angeles. Claire Dunphy is married to Phil Dunphy and they were blessed with three children Luke, Alex, and Haley[ZA5] . Jay is married to Colombian woman named Gloria who is helping her to raise her teen son, Manny. Mitchell and his husband, Cameron Tucker have adopted Vietnamese child called Tucker-Pritchett.

The show is presented in mockumentary style. This mockumentary style explores on three different types of families in the contemporary society through the stories of a gay family of Cameron Tucker and Mitchell, and their daughter Lily (“Watch Modern Family TV Show - ABC.Com”). The second family type is the family of Phil and Claire, who represent the straight family. The third family type is the family of Jay and Gloria, and they represent the multicultural couple. These three families explored in the show portray an honest image and more so [ZA6] a hilarious look into the sometimes twisted, sometimes warm, and embrace of the modern family[ZA7] .

The storyline of the show is told from the perspective of an unseen filmmaker, and the series offers a hilarious and an honest perspective of family life[ZA8] . As shown in the episodes, Claire and Phil yearn for an honest and an open relationship with their children. Their yearning was shattered away by their daughter, who is trying to grow up very fast, and another daughter who is too smart for her own good (“Watch Modern Family TV Show - ABC.Com”). Also, the wildly boisterous young son makes it more challenging to achieve their desires. Jay and his wife, Gloria is raising their two sons together, but they sometimes argue that Jay is Gloria’s father. Mitchell, Jay’s gay son, and his partner Cameron Tucker adopted a little Asian girl. The family of Mitchell and Cameron Tucker brings into light a straight gay family, multicultural, and traditional happy family.

Modern family aired by ABC partially fits into the idea of the model family. Initially, a family of Jay and Gloria was to the expectation of the concept of model family. In that, it was composed of father, mother, and the children. After the children grown up, they started having couples from different cultural aspects and religious beliefs (Bott et al, 2). The new life dimensions are out of their parent’s expectations. The three family dimensions ensue when the children grow up, and it entails straight family and gay family. The gay family can be reflected in a couple of Cameron Tucker and Mitchell, whereas, the straight family is depicted in the family of Phil and Claire.

From the onset of the series, the show has portrayed a dynamic society. Initially, the family type was mainly compost of father, mother, and children. But with modernization and technology, people have started adapting to a new mode of marriages such as gay marriage et al. The ‘Truth Be Told’ episode indicates the changing perspective of the marriage (Kreppner et al, 25). As it was in the past, the family was a unity factor, but due to the dynamics people have started viewing marriage as an institution of just bearing children or adopting children. The deviation from the initial core values of marriages has highly eroded the smooth coexistence in the institution of marriage. Generally, the new dynamics have highly eroded the important role which marriage used to play in the community.

In addition, the seventeenth episode, ‘Truth Be Told’ portrays a society which is becoming more eroded with changes in the mode of communication. As depicted in the episode, children are becoming less obedience to their parents and this can be attributed to the poor mode of communication between parents and children.  The episode further reflects a society which is shifting from tradition marriage types to modern marriages (Greenwood et al, 12). In the episode, the family of Phil can be attributed to tradition marriage, whereas, the marriage of their children can be termed as modern marriages. In a broader perspective, the storyline of the episodes is all about a society which adapting to new changes in the institution of marriages.

( New analyzing paragraph )[ZA9] 

Works Cited

“Watch modern family TV show - ABC.com.” ABC, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. Retrieved from http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family

Bott, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Bott Spillius. Family and social network: Roles, norms and external relationships in ordinary urban families. Routledge, 2014.

Greenwood, Jeremy, et al. "Technology and the changing family: A unified model of marriage, divorce, educational attainment, and married female labor-force participation." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 8.1 (2016): 1-41.

Kreppner, Kurt, and Richard M. Lerner, eds. Family systems and life-span development. Psychology Press, 2013.

 

 

 

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